


Exit 307, part deux

by SeaWallFics



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: A Bit of Fluff, F/F, a bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:20:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26193301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeaWallFics/pseuds/SeaWallFics
Summary: Part two of Exit 307. Christen's POV.
Relationships: Tobin Heath/Christen Press
Comments: 9
Kudos: 60





	Exit 307, part deux

Christen's two hoodies in when it suddenly hits her. There's an open suitcase on the bed waiting to be filled with bare essentials. She'll send Tobin the rest when the dust of her decision settles.

Christen can't believe she just up and left, peeling out of the lot behind their building, destination unknown. She's tried calling, but Tobin's not picking up. She's tried texting her, but there's no response. She's in anguish. The quiet night in the two of them were supposed to have ends with one girlfriend on the lam and the other's heart in bloody tatters.

Twenty minutes after Tobin leaves, somewhere between the fourth call and the seventh text, Christen thinks she's about to lose it, not knowing where Tobin is and if the other woman will be back. She makes a list to get a grip on her swirling thoughts. She's nine bullet points in when she realizes what she's doing and then she pauses, wondering if this is how she wants to deal with the situation.

It is. For now. Christen's hurting and she's angry and tomorrow she may see things in a different light, but for now, this is how she processes. She stomps upstairs, into their bedroom, heads for the closet in a direct line. She's going to need a suitcase.

  * Electric toothbrush



It's the first thing she thought of. Gotta protect that beautiful smile. Before getting caught up in every precious memory of that beacon of charm, she tosses the device toward the bed.

  * Phone charger



Christen scoffs while she wraps the cord around the plug. Why the need for a charger if you never pick up your phone? It's petty and childish but she feels wholly entitled to feel this way. The charger is number two on her little list.

  * Socks + underwear



Number three is two for one. You can't pack one without the other. She doesn't know why she's folding every pair of boxer shorts, but she is. She should just toss all of Tobin's things in that damn valise and be done with it. It's not like she's going to care about creases in her underpants, but the neat freak in Christen can't help it and so her girlfriend, the woman she can hardly stand to think about right now, gets folded boxers and rolled up socks as a sendoff gift. And if Christen grins a little when catching sight of a pair of Spongebob Nike Elites, then no one has to know about it. She's still mad as hell, okay?

  * Hoodies



If there's one thing Tobin can't be without, it's her beloved hoodies. Christen has no idea how many there are, but a significant amount of closet space is filled up with Tobin's sweatshirts. Christen pretends to be annoyed when she buys yet another one, but secretly she can't wait until Tobin washes it, wears it once or twice and then leaves it laying around. Christen steals it, of course. To wear it herself. It feels like home, surrounded by Tobin's scent that seems to linger in every fiber of the baby soft fabric. Before she lets the dark green garment slip from her fingers, she can't help but hug it to her chest. The familiar smell unlocks something painful inside of her and Christen swears she can actually hear the crack of her heart breaking inside of her chest.

  * T-shirts



She doesn't realize she's crying until she can no longer distinguish one shirt from another. She pulls a stack of them from a shelf and drops it on the bed without ceremony. Tobin owns more t-shirts than hoodies and it won't matter which ones Christen packs, because they'll all look good on Tobin. They've been together for years, but Tobin still makes her heart race when she's wearing a nicely cut wife beater and a pair of ridiculously patterned shorts. Her tears start falling a lot faster when she thinks about not getting to see Tobin like that ever again and Christen's starting to understand what she's doing and what it could possibly lead to.

  * Shoes



Now that she's forced to pay attention to the matter, she discovers that she owns way less clothing and shoes than the hoarder she apparently lives with and Christen owns _a lot_ of clothing and shoes. The shoe rack in Tobin's walk in closet is filled with sneakers and high tops, a lonely set of loafers tucked between a pair of Air Force 1's and rainbow colored BETRUE's. Christen remembers Tobin wearing them to the re-set event back in August '19 and how extremely dashing she'd looked in her fitted slacks, understated white t-shirt and wearing those black leather loafers on bare feet. She rolls her eyes at herself when she notices the uptick in her heartbeat. She's still furious but her libido clearly doesn't give a crap as it lets her know how attracted she still is to her stunning partner and it annoys her. She wants to be indignant and resentful and thinking of Tobin in black slacks and white t-shirts doesn't help with any of that. It pisses her off even more.

She grabs two pairs of sneakers and a pair of boots and flings them through the open closet door, enraged by the inability to resist that damn woman's charm when she's not even here. Christen follows the trail of shoes back into the bedroom, carefully stepping over the brightly colored sport shoes and worn motorcycle boots on her way to the bed where her list is.

Just when she's about to cross out number six on her list, she hears a noise downstairs. Her breath catches and she swears her heart stops when she hears a soft voice calling her name from the foot of the stairs. It sounds hoarse. Contrite. Like Tobin's already asking for forgiveness. It only manages to reignite Christen's fury because how dare she? How dare she come in and think this can be fixed by an easy apology?

Slamming the half-filled suitcase closed, Christen zips it up and yanks it off the bed. With renewed elan, she stalks out of the bedroom and hurries down the stairs. She can tell Tobin's startled by the oomph in her demeanor, but what Christen carries down those steps scares her even more. Keen brown eyes take in the suitcase while Tobin's brain computes what she's seeing.

" _No_ ," she pleads immediately, because Tobin knows what this means.

"Chris, _please_!"

Christen's known Tobin for years now and she likes to believe she can read her girlfriend like her most well-read novel. She's seen many different smiles and she' seen just as many frowns on that beautiful face. When Tobin laughs, it comes from deep within and it heals Christen even on her darkest days. When Tobin cries, she does so without restraint and it tears into Christen's soul every single time. She's seen Tobin cry out of happiness and out of grief, but she's never seen her cry like this.

She watches Tobin sink down to the floor, knees hitting the wood painfully hard. Her head is bowed as if she's praying. Christen will never be angry enough to not feel moved by a crying Tobin and she almost feels like a harpy for putting Tobin through this.

"I’ve thought about it," she hears herself say, voice barely audible. "I've thought about sending you on your way the moment you got back. _If_ you ever got back."

Christen watches her flinch from the emphasized "if" before Tobin curls into herself even more, visibly ashamed of her behavior.

"You _left_ , Tobin," Christen accuses. "You left and I had no idea if or when you'd be back. Hell, after the things we talked about tonight, I was certain you’d just drive straight to the airport and never look back."

At this, Tobin raises her head, finally daring to look Christen in the eye. She's such an open book and Christen knows exactly what she's trying to say, but she wants Tobin to actually _say_ it. She wants to hear the reasons for taking off in the middle of the night without so much as an explanation. She didn't know Tobin was leaving until she'd heard the slam of the door and that, more than anything else happening tonight, is what bothers Christen most. Tobin left as if she didn’t care and Christen struggles to reconcile _that_ person with the one currently kneeling in the middle of the living room, awaiting verdict.

"Where did you go?"

She doesn’t hesitate.

"Portland."

"Portland," Christen repeats and she can't quite believe what she's hearing.

Tobin nods, looking up but not at Christen, her eyes landing on one object after another. When she opens her mouth, she has quite a lot to say.

Her story starts and ends with an apology. She talks really fast – a first, you think – and between the first apology and the last, Christen's mind gets stuck on random words and phrases. She hears Tobin talk about marriage and kids and how she can’t wait to kick off the rest of their lives together. She babbles about exits and a bar in Corinne owned by a woman called Mavis who'd love to meet Christen. Not a lot of it makes sense, except for the part where she gets up and closes the distance between them.

The woman standing in front of Christen now looks different from the one that left mere hours ago. She can't quite put her finger on the why, but Christen thinks it has something to do with the conviction, the _promise,_ in Tobin's eyes. It'll take some time to puzzle all the pieces together and Tobin's not off the hook just yet after the stunt she pulled tonight, but that suitcase is not leaving the apartment any time soon.

Christen grabs its handle with one hand while the other reaches out for Tobin, silently asking her to climb the stairs together. With a gut wrenching sob of relief Tobin's body crashes into Christen's. She tells Tobin to freshen up, giving herself time to unpack that damn suitcase and get rid of her list.

She finds the piece of paper on the floor next to the bed. She picks it up and finds herself scanning the last three bullet points. Three more things – three _essential_ things – she could think of to get her through the first couple of days after their split.

  * Tissues
  * Gum
  * Me



**Author's Note:**

> Another revised work re-posted under a different pen name, so this may seem familiar.
> 
> I'm on Tumblr if you want to come talk to me about the stories, the series or if you just want to have a chat.


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